


The Best of It

by GraarPlacemat



Series: Three Boys in Love [8]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alcohol, Established Relationship, Guns, Homophobic Language, M/M, Meeting the Parents, Polyamory, general ignorence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-02-17 01:42:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2292272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GraarPlacemat/pseuds/GraarPlacemat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marco and Eren finally meet Jean's family.<br/>"Sorry about the words. They don't get how offensive it is."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Best of It

**Author's Note:**

> Helloooooo  
> I have been REALLY inactive here and I'd like to take a moment to apologize for that. I've just been super busy - and it's really not looking like that's going to let up anytime soon - and I've been doing some plotting on a major multichapter fic that I'm SUPER excited for(it's Mikasasha/Erejeanmarco! Two of my OTPs YEAHH). Someone on Tumblr finally reminded me that I'd never posted this here, so here it is ^^;  
> A note; Jean's family, the good parts and the bad parts, are inspired by my own. These are all based on interactions that I have found myself in the midst of.

"My family wants to meet you guys," Jean had told them, numbly. "They invited you to their Fourth of July thing."

Eren and Marco glanced at each other, then at Jean. “Do you want to go?” Marco asked him carefully. Jean’s family was a touchy subject.

Jean was lying back on their bed, between Marco and Eren, the way they liked to sleep. He’d just joined them after an hour on the phone with his mother. “I want you to meet my parents,” he replied, finally. “The rest, I could do without.”

"Have you ever asked them not to drink with you there?" Eren suggested, though he suspected he knew the answer.

"They’re the kind of people who don’t think they can have fun without alcohol in their system."

"Gotcha."

"Is there anywhere you can go where they don’t allow drinks? So if you get freaked out, you can escape?"

Jean gave him a deadpan stare. “The shooting range.”

Marco pulled a face. “Oh.”

"Not a great place to unwind from a panic attack," Eren muttered, grimacing.

"I know."

"Hey," Marco comforted him, "We’ll be there. If you need to leave, you can tell us, and we’ll have you out of there in a heartbeat."

Jean looked at Marco, who was propped up on one elbow, and then down at Eren, who was hugging Jean’s side. They looked back at him.

"I’ll tell Mom we can go," he sighed.

-

Eren had met Jean’s mother, a robust Wisconsin woman, before, back at orientation. Marco was unfamiliar.

"My boy’s sure got charm, if he can get both of you," she said, and Jean blushed furiously.

"Trade secret, Mrs. Kirschstein," Marco replied, chuckling, "It’s his lack of charm that reeled us in."

"Marco!"

"Eren! Have you grown since I last saw you?"

"A little bit, yeah!"

"And how is your father? He looked awfully harried."

"He was moving two kids into two separate colleges at the same time. It was a pretty big job. But, hey, I think he’s okay, now that he only ever has to worry about moving Mikasa around."

"Ooh, yes, it’s a lot nicer now that I don’t have to think about shuffling Jean between the dorms and home. Though," she added, giving her son a stern look, "I do wish he’d visit more often."

"Sorry, Ma," Jean mumbled, looking more embarrassed by the minute.

"No harm done, dear. If I had two boyfriends as handsome as this, I’d never come home, either."

-

"You shoot good, for a pansy," grunted one of Jean’s uncles as he leaned against their clay bird launcher.

Marco put down his borrowed rifle. “Um,” he stalled, “Thanks?”

It was a good thing he had a thick skin, he supposed, as Jean’s relatives jostled him, congratulating him for a job well done. They’d very quickly pinned words to him, like pansy, as an odd sort of pet name. Eren, for some reason, had not received the same treatment, and he figured that was good because he’d probably smack them upside the head if he did.

Somehow, he found himself sitting on a stump, watching one of Jean’s cousins, a shorter, poorly-shaven fellow with waist-length black hair, approach the range. It would take a few minutes to prepare the bird launcher again, so they were allowed to take their earplugs out and converse.

Jean’s direct uncle, the husband of his mother’s sister, Eld, was sitting next to him. He had a generous beard and numerous tattoos, but he was a touch more liberal than the rest of them and had quickly become a valuable ally to Marco.

"Sorry ‘bout the words," he muttered, fiddling with his pocket knife. "They don’t get how offensive it is."

"I caught that," Marco said back, watching the knife a with a little apprehension and a little awe. Before he could comment, another, younger cousin sidled up to them.

"So, like," he mused, without preamble, "You got two guys, right?"

"Yes," Marco said slowly, feeling Eld tense up next to him.

"Like… Is there a man in the relationship? Are you all together, or is there like a central one, and the other two are like his wives, like the Mormons?"

"Let’s go up to the house," Eld decided, and stood up to walk away.

After a perplexed glance at the younger cousin, Marco followed him.

"Petra’s kid," Eld explained. "She’s actually pretty nice, but she’s busy, so her sister Martha raised the kids for her. Martha’s a bitch."

"Oh." It was all Marco could think to say.

They were at Jean’s great-uncle’s house, which was nested in the midst of a bunch of farmland. He’d gotten the place for cheap, so he had a big yard that he let the kids drive golf carts around in and a shooting range all his own. The man’s name was Pixis, and Marco hadn’t seen him the whole night - though he hadn’t actually seen much, because he’d been separated from Jean and Eren when he was forcibly dragged down to the range.

When they got up the slope, they entered the house through the garage. Downstairs, in the basement that opened onto the hill, there were sounds of revelry, but the ground floor was quiet.

To his vast relief, Marco found his boyfriends sitting at the kitchen counter, chatting with the couple people in the kitchen who were preparing dinner. Nobody here had drinks.

"Hey," he called, and the two turned toward him.

"Oh, here he is! Aunty Petra, Aunty Rico, Ilse, this is Marco."

"Hey, kiddo," greeted Petra, leaning up against the counter. "I hear you’ve been taking care of Secretariat."

"Secretariat?"

"They think I look like a horse," Jean explained.

"Hey, you kinda do!" Eren snickered.

"You can shut your mouth," Jean snarked back, nudging Eren with his shoulder. "I’m beautiful."

"You are," Eren agreed, kissing Jean on the cheek.

"Oh, come on, guys, we just finished lecturing you about PDA," Ilse mock-warned them, waggling a playful finger.

"Anyway, Marco, where have you been?" Jean asked. He seemed very relaxed. This was mildly surprising, but good nonetheless.

"I got dragged down to the shooting range, but Eld rescued me." He glanced around. "I didn’t see where he went."

"Probably downstairs," Rico explained, and added, "Get your food and get out onto the porch. Dinner’s ready and I don’t want you to get swamped by the drunkards when they come up."

"Thanks, Aunty," Jean said, and got off his chair.

-

Later on, they were out on the porch again, just the three of them, waiting for the(heavily illegal) fireworks show to begin. Apparently, Pixis purchased multitudes of fireworks every year, and it was tradition for whoever a) was above eighteen years of age and b) had the inclination to drunkenly set them all off come sundown.

"Really, it’s a miracle that nobody’s ever gotten hurt," Jean explained.

He was leaning on Marco’s shoulder, and Eren was leaning on his. They were cozy, tucked away from everyone else, and relaxed.

"You know," Eren mumbled, "I expected your family to be a lot more obnoxious than they were."

"You saw the best of it," Marco replied darkly, and Jean laughed.

"I guess I was nervous, since I didn’t know how they’d treat you guys. They’re really not that bad, even if they don’t understand some things."

"Like homosexuality," Marco said, "Or polyamory. Or phobias."

"Yeah." The first firework made its trail into the sky, and exploded into crimson and gold light. "They just don’t get those things."

"Maybe they could try," Eren said.

"I don’t think they will," Marco said.

Jean shrugged. “They probably won’t. But they’re not dangerous. The ones that really matter, the smart ones like Rico or Eld or Ilse - they get it.”

"Those are my favorites," Eren gasped, watching a ground-based fountain spew its golden jets.

"I used to call those meatballs," Jean chuckled when a small white explosion let out a sound like a gunshot. "I’m still not sure why."

Marco was watching his boyfriends, watching their ecstatic reactions to the sounds and colors and light. He wondered how they did it - how they shed the negativity they’d experienced like water off a duck’s back.

Jean didn’t do that, he reminded himself. Jean was nervous just about coming here, but now he’s okay.

One of his own favorites went off, then - a huge explosion that showered sparkles in its aftermath. Jean and Eren were silent, eyes wide as they watched the glimmering trails fall gently, like snow, and Marco felt his heart soften.

Being in their company was so therapeutic - it made Marco forget all the awkwardness and tension he’d felt at the shooting range.

That must be it, he told himself.

The finale came, flashing brilliant displays of color, and he only had eyes for the two boys beside him.

**Author's Note:**

> The Tumblr post;  
> http://missplacemat.tumblr.com/post/92547284298/this-is-a-good-idea-wow-okay-id-never-even


End file.
